First, we get an example of the bad. In the beginning of this issue, Spidey goes up against a villain named Equinox, who has the powers of both Iceman and the Human Torch. Since he couldn't come up with web formula specifically designed to stop Equinox in time, Spidey decided to "[borrow] a few tricks from someone else's bag." And just who was that someone else?

Gwen Stacy would approve, I'm sure.

However, when Spidey helps to rush a firefighter to the hospital who had one of his feet broken off as a result of Equinox's freezing powers, we get one of the rarest of scenes in superhero comics: how a costumed hero's high-tech gadgets could actually change the real world:

Okay, it begs the question as to why Peter can't make his web-shooters have practical, real-world applications like all the other stuff he's made for Horizon Labs (not to mention make a certain super genius with elastic powers who heads "the world's greatest superhero team" even more "useless"). However, I do think Slott does a commendable job in actually showing how Peter's Spider-Man inspired inventions actually start to make the world a better place beyond just him fighting crime. What's more, it makes for a nice juxtaposition in Peter believing he's finally making a difference as Peter Parker instead of taking pictures, only to have J. Jonah Jameson, moments later, J. arrives at Horizon Labs and threaten legal action to shut the place down, thus putting Peter new-found success in jeopardy.

But then, Doc Ock sets in motion his "final master plan" towards the end of the issue (which is quite brilliant, by the way), and at last we get to see what Peter has come up in order to prepare himself for his eventual battle with the Sinister Six. And the end result of all that hard work and preparation is this:

I don;t think those are laser beams. If the new suit is a combination of all of his Horizon suits, like the armor he used against Massacre, then I think those are related to his light and sound bending suit.

1. Instead of turning over the jamming devices that disable Spider-Man's spider-sense after "Spider-Island" (they were based on a device Peter made to short out Alistair Smythe's new spider-slayers which also ended up shorting out his own spider-sense shorted out because of them and they used them to contain the population of New York from leaving when they were under quarantine) and thus having something that could "control and contain Spider-Man," Max Modell ordered that they be destroyed them to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands and used against Spidey.

2. That one of the Horizon Lab's workers (Grady Scraps) made a time-machine that, in one possible future, destroyed all of New York City (as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #678-679).

3. That Max Modell, the head of Horizon Labs, has Morbius the Living Vampire working there as an employee.

4. But Jonah's primary reason is that because the space station John Jameson was on was created by Horizon Labs and malfunctioned, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #680-681, Jonah blames Max Modell for putting his son's life in danger.

Still, it's awesome to have Peter cry "Avengers Assemble!" after being the loner so long. Just like when the Sinister Twelve got together, and everybody in New York came running to help out Pete, just 'cuz MJ called.

Yeah, the little bombs like Norman I can accept, but why would he even need a Spider-Glider?

As for the Richards Is Useless troupe you throw out with this, I actually saw a decent counter-point to this over on the Bleeding Cool forum:

"Why don't the Fantastic Four provide the world with flying cars? Because some dingus...either a drunk frat boy or a terrorist...would crash it into a building and kill a lot of people. Why doesn't Reed create a cure for cancer? Because for the millions he saved dozens would die, and then he'd have to spend his time in court. I think Jonathan Hickman's SHIELD...years after Morrison's Sci-Fi Closet for Batman...provided the perfect narrative escape from these kinds of questions. All through out Marvel's history, da Vinci, Galileo, and such could have made the world a utopia, except they kept getting distracting trying to keep it from being destroyed. The reason people think Reed Richards is Useless is because...instead of conducting three years of drug trials, answering endless bug reports, and dealing with help desk phone calls...he's inventing shit to stop Celestials and Dr. Doom from glassing the planet."

I've used a similar thing for the "Reed Richards Is Useless" trope in my superhero games. The stuff the super-geniuses make is so advanced, most peer review boards simply cannot make heads or tails of it. The only ones who can do a proper review of it are other super-geniuses, but they're either busy making their own super-tech, or countering/fighting supervillains and other threats.

"Why don't the Fantastic Four provide the world with flying cars? Because some dingus...either a drunk frat boy or a terrorist...would crash it into a building and kill a lot of people."

This I agree with, although having a ground-effect-type car would save wear and tear on roads--a huge expense and inconvenience to repair--and allowing authorized emergency vehicles to fly would save lives and vastly decrease response time.

"Why doesn't Reed create a cure for cancer? Because for the millions he saved dozens would die, and then he'd have to spend his time in court."

Lots of types of treatments have potential adverse effects; thousands of people die every year just from general anesthetic.

"I think Jonathan Hickman's SHIELD...years after Morrison's Sci-Fi Closet for Batman...provided the perfect narrative escape from these kinds of questions. All through out Marvel's history, da Vinci, Galileo, and such could have made the world a utopia, except they kept getting distracting trying to keep it from being destroyed. The reason people think Reed Richards is Useless is because...instead of conducting three years of drug trials, answering endless bug reports, and dealing with help desk phone calls...he's inventing shit to stop Celestials and Dr. Doom from glassing the planet."

Richards wouldn't be doing those drug trials himself, but the Galactus Answer is plenty good in and of itself. I tend to think that the net result of supergeniuses in the world would be closer to the versions of New York City that we saw in Watchmen and Promethea: life would be more or less like it is now, with the exception of some consumer goods and maybe a few buildings.

Oh a Red Hood/Spider-Man crossover!! And you wanna bet that glider and new bombs will be stolen by Phil Urich? Or worse.. if my theory holds true that Roderick Kingsley is still among the living and not deceased as we're lead to believe.

Visually speaking yes, but given that Spider-Man can lift somewhere in the region of 10 tons, the notion that any outfit not actively composed of Sherman tanks and concrete blocks would actually limit his speed, agility or movement that much never quite gels with me.

There's a bit in Watchmen where Nite Owl has a rack of alternate costumes in the owlship: underwater, hazmat, etc. plus of course the cold weather costume which is sort of based on an Arctic owl, which he actually uses. That's what Spider-Man reminds me of these days.

Peter's always been exceptionally bright in most of his incarnations (he's kept up with Richards AND Stark at various points) but if this version has invented the Cryo Cube, that polymer, a comfortable design of noise reduction headphones that's popular and who knows what else, short of working for a Stereotypical Evil Corporate that is stealing its interns ideas, Peter ought to be rolling in the money right now (promotions, raises, bonuses, possibly even percentages of the contracts).

I don't think it'd be *all* the money, if he didn't get part of the funds they generate, why would he still be there?

That and the corp. gives him acess to resources that he wouldn't normally have, unless you want him linking his civvie identity to hero groups like teh Avengers or FF. Just my thoughts on one plausible way it would make sense.

Right, standard for comics and real world. My suspension of disbelief is just encountering a momentary bumpy road while I'm trying to wrap my head around a company that isn't attempting to keep someone who has churned out at least three profitable patents for them (more or less by himself, knowing comics) as financially happy as possible. Even Wolfram & Hart offered bonuses and incentives! ;P

Don't mind me, on a meta level I understand why it isn't happening but apparently I should go get the entire suspension adjusted/replaced.

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